reformers of his time.

"Most English Liberals," he said, "seem persuaded that our Elementary
Schools should be undenominational, and their teaching secular; and that
with a public elementary school it cannot well be otherwise. Let them
clearly understand, however, that on the Continent generally--everywhere
except in Holland--the public elementary school is denominational (of
course with what we should call a 'conscience clause') and its teaching
religious as well as secular."

In one important respect the State, which has so often adopted his
views, at once outstripped and fell short of his ideal. He was not a
strong or undiscriminating advocate for Compulsory Education. He
believed that, in the foreign countries where compulsion obtained, it
was not the cause, but the effect, of a national feeling for education.
When a people set a high value on knowledge, they would insist that
every child should have a chance of acquiring it. But you could not
create that high value by compelling people to send their children to
school. As late as the end of the year 1869, he seems to have feared
that any legislation which hindered a child from working for its own or
its parents' support would be highly unpopular and would be evaded. "A
law of direct compulsion on the parent and child would probably be
violated every day in practice; and, so long as this is the case, a law
levelled at the employer is preferable."

But when those words were written, compulsion was near at hand. The
Parliament of 1868-1874--the first elected by a democratic
suffrage--was intent on Reform, and the right of a father to starve his
child's mind was strenuously denied. Forster, then Vice-President of the
Council, was charged with the duty of preparing a Bill to establish